The Pawn - saving game state issue SDrive Max

[Transfinity]

Hello All,

 

I am trying to play the Pawn on my Atari 800XL, using SDrive Max for handling game disks.

I load and play the game with no issues.

However if I want to save the game on a formatted (ATR) disk image (single density using DOS 2.0.2 or DOS 2.5) it looks like the

game does not like it. Any suggestion?

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

Please note that the pawns files are not written out in DOS format, so be sure to use a formatted disk which does not contain any files which you may want to keep and that means format only without writing out DOS files.

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[Transfinity]

Hello Doctor!

 

thanks for your prompt reply!

Yes, I did NOT write any DOS files in the image disk, just formatted using DOS 2.x 

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

how are you swapping the disk and is the write protection on or off?

control key held down  R  or W?   for read only or write.

Edited March 6, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[Wrathchild]

Try the image on post #6 of this thread which has a reserved save area on it (plus does away with disk swapping etc).

Edited March 6, 2021 by Wrathchild

[Transfinity]

Hi!

 

- am I swapping disks? Of course I am swapping disk on the SDrive MAX: putting the "save game disk" (formatted) into D1 when the program asks for it.

- write protection? Disk image I have created and formatted as a "save game disk" is writable

 

If someone has the time it could be helpful to reproduce the issue with the game.

 

Best,

 

[Transfinity]

Thanks @Wrathchild for the input (your ATR works actually), I finally found the really "silly" issue: long story short you need your "save game disk" image to be 133KB (Medium density)

 

Originally, I created a Medium Density image with my emulator and tried to format it with my 800XL (DOS 2.x) using the SDisk-MAX; it failed

SDisk-MAX FW 1.2 should have fixed it also for double density (https://github.com/kbr-net/sdrive-max/issues/32) but apparently it is not working.

 

So I used a Single Image (90K) and I was able to format it once mounted on the SDisk-MAX however it failed to save the game state.

Looking at the size of the original game disks (133KB) I created and formatted just using the emulator and then mounted the image in 

the SDisk-MAX and I was able to save the game state.

 

Problem solved.

 

Best,